As Postal Service Faces Cash Crisis, FedEx and UPS Spend Millions on Lobbying

FedEx and UPS — two private carriers positioned to capitalize on a weakened U.S. Postal Service — poured nearly $20 million into federal lobbying in 2025, an OpenSecrets analysis found. A series of events left USPS bracing for an uncertain future. First, its leader warned the agency could run out of cash by 2027, leaving it unable to pay employees or vendors. Amazon then announced it would…
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Once a Niche Topic in Federal Lobbying, AI Is Now a Major Area of Focus

Artificial intelligence has rapidly evolved from a niche lobbying issue into a central pillar of corporate influence in Washington. Nowhere is this shift more evident than in the defense industry, where both legacy defense contractors and an influx of AI-first startups are making the technology a core focus of their lobbying efforts. AI barely registered in federal lobbying disclosures for…
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Far Right Indian Organization Ends US Lobbying Operations After Controversy

India’s largest Hindu far-right organization, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), is no longer working with lobbyists in the U.S. after launching its first known lobbying campaign targeting members of Congress last January. Squire Patton Boggs, the firm that lobbied on behalf of the RSS, terminated the campaign weeks after a Prism investigation detailed the RSS’s lobbying activities…
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India’s Largest Paramilitary Hires US Lobbyists to Influence Congress

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), India’s largest Hindu far-right organization, initiated a well-funded lobbying effort in the U.S. earlier this year, a Prism investigation has found. Prism is the first news outlet to report that Squire Patton Boggs, one of the top lobbying firms in the U.S., registered as a lobbyist on Jan. 16 for the RSS, according to lobbying disclosures.
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Shutdown Deal Kills Rules to Prevent Food Contamination and Foodborne Illnesses

Amid a lobbying blitz and a flood of campaign cash, senators inserted language into this week’s emergency spending bill that eliminates rules designed to prevent food contamination and foodborne illnesses at farms and restaurants, according to legislative text reviewed by The Lever. The bill would also limit the development of rules to regulate ultra-processed foods, despite such foods being…
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Fossil Fuel Lobbyists Outnumbered Negotiators, Delegates at UN Climate Talks

Over 5000 fossil fuel lobbyists were given access to U.N. climate summits over the past four years, a period marked by a rise in catastrophic extreme weather, adequate climate action and record oil and gas expansion. “This is climate obstruction at work,” says Nina Lakhani, senior climate justice reporter for The Guardian US. She notes that lobbyists attend climate conferences to “promote false…
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